Discussion: Imagine That You Are A Health Educator And Progr

Discussion: Imagine that you are a health educator and programmer for

Imagine that you are a health educator and programmer for your county health department. Your department was recently awarded funding from your state to develop and implement a program to prevent tobacco use among adolescents. As part of your program needs assessment, you must determine the availability of, access to, and attitudes toward tobacco among local middle and high school students. Recent and locally applicable data are not available from existing sources. Discuss two data collection methods that you would use to gather this information. Specify the benefits and drawbacks to each method and describe whether the data you collect with each method will be quantitative or qualitative. Requirements: 150 words minimal 2-3 reference 100% no plagiarism

Paper For Above instruction

To effectively assess tobacco-related behaviors and perceptions among adolescents, employing a combination of survey questionnaires and focus group discussions would be advantageous. Surveys are a quantitative data collection method that allows for the broad collection of information regarding students’ access to tobacco products, availability, and general attitudes. The benefits of surveys include their scalability, cost-effectiveness, and the ability to gather statistically analyzable data from a large sample, providing a comprehensive overview of prevalent trends (Fowler, 2014). However, surveys may lack depth and nuance regarding attitudes and underlying motivations, and response bias can affect accuracy (Bryman, 2016). Conversely, focus group discussions are qualitative methods that provide deeper insights into students’ perceptions, social influences, and emotional responses related to tobacco use. The primary benefit is capturing rich, detailed data that can inform tailored intervention strategies (Krueger & Casey, 2015). Nonetheless, focus groups are resource-intensive, less generalizable, and susceptible to social desirability bias (Morgan, 2014). Combining these approaches would yield comprehensive data to inform effective tobacco prevention programs.

References

• Bryman, A. (2016). Social Research Methods. Oxford University Press.
• Fowler, F. J. (2014). Survey Research Methods. Sage Publications.
• Krueger, R. A., & Casey, M. A. (2015). Focus Groups: A Practical Guide for Applied Research. Sage Publications.
• Morgan, D. L. (2014). Practical Strategies for Combining Qualitative and Quantitative Methods. Qualitative Inquiry, 20(3), 250-257.